St. Patrick’s day

On Thursday, 17th of March, we Essence members gathered once again to have a fun night out. This time, we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, a traditional Irish cultural and religious holiday. The day marks the death of Saint Patrick, the foremost Patron Saint of Ireland. Yearly, on this day, Irish communities all around the world and of course especially people in Ireland celebrate this day with parades, gatherings called Ceili and lots of Irish beer and Whisky.

Because we also have some Irish Essence members, we came together to visit the two Irish pubs in Breda, O’Meara’s and Mad Molly’s, to enjoy some live music and drinks. As head of the event, Ava and I were the first to arrive and found a cosy table close to the stage. It was my first time in O’Meara’s and I was really elated by all the old pictures in the pub and the general welcoming and warm atmosphere.

We started off with some well-known Guinness and Magners Irish Cider and slowly the other Essence members were arriving. Ava, our Irish woman, confessed that she actually doesn’t even like Guinness that much and usually, she can only drink one pint because it’s as filling as a dinner for her. Nevertheless, the beer taps (and cider for Ava) were running and soon after, the live band started playing. A duo called Shalison coming straight from Templebar, Dublin played. The two members were singing and playing the guitar. How stirring they were! The woman’s raspy voice was terrific. They played some Irish classics and international hits that the whole pub enjoyed. Ava asked them to play one of her favourite songs, Grace by the Dubliners, and hand-in-hand our group was waving to the melody:

“Oh, Grace, just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger, They'll take me out at dawn and I will die. With all my love, I place this wedding ring upon your finger, There won't be time to share our love for we must say good-bye”

All the singing made us thirsty, so we also tried out other beers Ireland has to offer such as Kilkenny. Unfortunately, the beer is from the city with Ava’s village’s rivalling soccer club which made us receive some antagonistic looks on her part. Disregarding this impudence, everybody was having such a good time that after some time we started to get up and dance. Although the band stopped playing at some point, we kept bobbing and mingling with the other people in the pub. Some of us were enjoying the night so much, they went to Mad Molly’s pub later on and ended the event with even more live music over there.

Overall, the evening was a blast and it was amazing to get a bit more acquainted with Irish culture and traditions!

PS: I totally recommend Irish TAYTO crisps, Cheese&Onion and Salt&Vinegar flavour, we had that night. Whenever you are in Ireland or at your nearest Irish pub, try them out 😉